Monday, January 21, 2013

New logo: Solvay

Solvay is a Belgian chemical company with a long history going back to 1863. For most of that history, its company symbol has been an S with an arrow, but that long legacy ended on January 17, when a new corporate identity was revealed as part of an overhaul of the company's organisation.

In place of the ancient symbol comes a swirling S, that is said to be and expression of Solvay's ambitions. It was created by Paris based design agency Vincenti Design.

Previous logo.

An unbelievably detailed logo history.

From a press release:

“We wanted a corporate identity capable of conjuring up the notions of expertise, innovation and modernity. We chose this creation that perfectly expresses the ability of our Group to reinvent itself. The highly symbolic letter "S" and the use of the color blue, maintains a clear link with the Group's history,” says Michel Defourny, Head of Solvay’s Corporate Communications.

“The new logo had to be faithful to Solvay’s history while keeping the Group firmly turned towards the future. To build this new identity using the existing logo as our starting point, we identified several creative approaches based on the same blue color, the letter “S”, the sense of movement created by the arrow, and the oval… which finds an echo in the ellipse adopted for the new logo. With this solution, we wanted to create the impression that viewers are plunging into an object, as if it existed in 3D. We used computer graphics to model the shape, to create something half-way between a liquid and a solid in order to refer to Solvay’s core business activities,” explains Laurent Vincenti, CEO of Vincenti Design.